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AUCTION

‘Plug-ugly’ Honecker yacht fetches €130,000

A businessman snapped up the former German Democratic Republic leader's dock-bound motor launch at an auction on Sunday.

'Plug-ugly' Honecker yacht fetches €130,000
The Vineta has a new owner - but still can't sail. Photo: DPA

It is no longer licensed to sail and won't make much of a tourist attraction, since the original fittings were stripped out years ago.

But that did not deter six anonymous telephone bidders from trying to land the 40-year-old, 36-metre Vineta, one of four state motor launches at the disposal of former East German leader Erich Honecker.  

Originally named the A. Köbis after a sailor executed in WWI for mutiny, the Vineta went under the hammer amid insolvency proceedings for the shipyard that acquired it after the 1989 collapse of the GDR.

Formally classed as a 'sports boat' suited only to inland waterways, it has a large conference room but no sleeping cabins.

It also needs extensive technical refitting before it can operate again, bidders were warned.

And flashy it is not: Compared to the stylish wood-fitted launch used by Honecker's predecessor Walther Ulbricht, the Vineta is a "plug-ugly, rectangular steel box", said GDR boat-building expert Uwe Giesler.  

The vessel's rich history is one indisputable feature, though. With a capacity for 50 guests, it hosted floating receptions for dignitaries like Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega and Cuba's Fidel Castro – although the latter's trip was overshadowed by a mid-voyage collision with a Berlin bridge.

Launched in 1974 with a bottle of Romanian sparkling wine, the Vineta's austere lines and furnishings reflected GDR values. But it also had a West German engine and a British radar system.

Initially valued five years ago at €200,000, it has been in dry dock since September 2013. 

Many notable relics of the GDR period have been sold off in recent years. In 2011, Honecker's Soviet-built Ilyushin 18 plane was bought by a Dutch entrepreneur, taken to the Netherlands and converted into a hotel that sleeps two. Overnight stays start from €350 per person.

SEE ALSO: State sells Warhols as critics mourn 'black day'

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DIAMOND

Rare pink diamond to go under hammer in Geneva

An extremely rare pink diamond will be auctioned in Geneva on November 11 by Sotheby's, which says it is worth between $23 and $38 million.

Rare pink diamond to go under hammer in Geneva
A model poses with the “The Spirit of the Rose” diamond during a press preview on Friday. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Named “The Spirit of the Rose” after a famous Russian ballet, the 14.83-carat diamond mined in Russia is the biggest ever to go under the hammer in its category — “fancy vivid purple-pink”.
 
The occurrence of pink diamonds in nature is extremely rare in any size,” Gary Schuler, head of Sotheby's jewellery division, said in a statement. “Only one per cent of all pink diamonds are larger than 10-carats.”
   
Speaking to AFP, Benoit Repellin, head of fine jewellery auctions at Sotheby's Geneva, said the oval-shaped diamond was “completely pure.”
 
 
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The rough diamond was unearthed by Russia's Alrosa — one of the world's leading diamond producers — in the Republic of Sakha in the northeast of the country in July 2017.
   
Repellin said it took a painstaking year for cutting masters to turn the diamond into its polished form.
   
Sotheby's said the world auction record for a diamond and any gemstone or jewel was the “CTF Pink Star”, a 59.60-carat oval pink diamond that sold for $71.2 million in Hong Kong in 2017.
   
According to Repellin, five out of the 10 most valuable diamonds ever sold at auction were pink.
   
The sale of this gem coincides with the closure of the world's largest pink diamond mine in Australia after it exhausted its reserves of the precious stones.
   
The Argyle mine, in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, churned out more than 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds.
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